


To the Pet Store and Beyond - TMNT AU -

by PineapplesForWeeks



Series: TFoND TMNT AU series [2]
Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Origin Story, Other, Pet Store, Turtles, we all need more origin stories, we love these
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-09-28 16:09:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17186177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PineapplesForWeeks/pseuds/PineapplesForWeeks
Summary: How it all started.





	To the Pet Store and Beyond - TMNT AU -

**Author's Note:**

> Because this is how shit began to get weird and fabulous.
> 
> If there are any mistakes, feel free to point them out! English is not my first language and I tend to be slightly chaotic when writing.

It was a lovely sunday morning of April. Hamato Yoshi, dressed in his worn outbut clean clothes, was heading towards the pet store on feet, for he had no other means of transportation.

And it was a lovely day outside.

He had wanted to get some kind of small pet for some time now. It was lonely in his old apartment. He couldn’t get a cat or a dog, but he thought that something like a mouse or a hamster would suffice. They probably didn’t cost much to take care of, right?

Maybe.

He stepped into the pet store and was greeted with the odd smell of animal food, plants and the sounds of small animals everywhere. There were a couple of people, but not many. There was only one overworked looking employee, a young dark skinned woman, who looked quite annoyed by one of the customers.

“Listen sir, the turtles are 50$ each. If you prefer not to buy all four of them, that’s the price you’re going to have to pay for each of them. All four together would be 170$, and that’s the price,” she was saying, clearly trying to keep up a polite appearance with a smile and a gentle voice.

“Hey, look, do you want these turtles given away already? Just take the damn money, woman! I’ll take all four of them for a hundred, cool?” the man said, grinning in what Yoshi assumed should have been in a charming way. His hair was very long and curly, knots forming at the tips. They were also rather greasy and as dirty as the rest of his clothes.

This man could clearly not make enough money for himself. What was he planning to accomplish by buying expensive little turtles?

Yoshi continued browsing, but kept an ear and eye out for trouble from the man.

“Sweetheart,” the man was saying, leaning on the counter, “I know you want them out of here. There’s a reason they’re on sale. A pretty girl like you with your looks, you should have the intelligence worthy of them!”

Yoshi knew that, if this man played into the stereotypes and believed them when it came to women, this was an insult. The employee clearly saw that as well.

“Sir, I’m underage,” she said, a sour expression making its way into her face, “and if you continue to bother everyone in this store, I’ll have to show you the door.”

“Hey, I-”

That was his que.

“Listen to the young woman,” Yoshi said, stepping closer to the man. He easily toward over his small frame and bad posture.

He would prefer not to use intimidation like this, but he could see that for now, this employee was the only one working at the pet store while the others were on break (and he would never admit to it, not even when he is older and wiser, that he was bored of his new life in the city).

“She works here to satisfy the customers,” the dirty man protested. Rather weakly, Yoshi noted. “I’m a customer!”

“A customer buys the merchandise and pays what is needed and wanted,” Yoshi continued, calm and composed. “I would suggest you leave like the young lady advised.”

He did, after a look from both Yoshi and the young woman.

“I’m terribly sorry about that,” she said once he was gone. “He’s been pestering us for some time now, always trying to buy at least one animal for far less than we’d like.” She turned to him, smiling slightly. “Thank you for your help. Is there anything I can do for you?”

“Oh, I am simply browsing to see what kind of pet animal I can bring back to my home,” he answered. “It gets lonely. I have moved from Japan alone, and I am in need of company that is admitted in small apartments. Would you have a recommendation?”

“Well, you’re in luck,” the young lady said with a grin. He could now see on her nametag that her name was Angel. “You see those four turtles? Their sister was bought a few days ago, but you can have one of the others for 50$, while together is 170$! Would you be interested?”

“They are the ones that the man wanted to have, yes?”

“Yes,” she said with a nervous laugh. “He was right, we have been trying to get rid of them for some time now. All brothers, common box turtles.” She hesitated before saying, “I can’t give them to you for less, despite the fact that you helped out with  _ that  _ problem, so if they’re too expensive for you, I would suggest a fish.”

“Fish, while beautiful and special on their own right, are not good company I am afraid,” Yoshi said with a barely there grin. “I will buy all four, please.”

He paid and, with a small glass box filled with four baby turtles, started walking back home. He had a bag filled with turtle food and the equipment needed (“I’m gonna give them all to you for 30$ instead of the 50$, on the house!” Angel had said, which was probably counter productive but he wasn’t going to complain).

 

As he walked, he passed an alley. He heard strange voices in its shadows. Curious, he decided to investigate them, worried it might be some kind of mugging.

He peeked from the corner of the brick building and spotted three men in suits, all with identical black haircuts. Suddenly, a loud squeak was heard from a rat passing close to his feet, alerting the men.

“Kraang, there seems to be a creature known as a ‘Human’ doing which is known as watching,” on of them said. Yoshi immediately knew that there was something weird going on, and that this was definitely NOT a mugging.

“Kraang should eliminated that which is known as the ‘Human’ before it reveals our current presence.”

“Agreed.”

Before Yoshi could even flinch, one of the men reached for him and grabbed him by the collar and into the alley. That’s when the japanese man noticed the glowing green canisters in one of the men’s hands.

He kicked the one who was holding him in the stomach and punched him in the face. This simply made him stumble, despite the strength of the attack, but it was enough for Yoshi to break free. He brought the turtles’ box closer to his chest. He turned to run again, deciding that this was a fight even he would lose, but one of the men grabbed him by the arm and pulled. This made him fall backwards, right onto one of the many rats of the alley. It bit him in the arm, and he barely suppressed a yelp. Meanwhile, the glass box of the pet turtles shattered as it hit the floor, freeing the four little animals.

Yoshi took one of the men’s legs and made him trip right into the other. Unfortunately, this was the one holding the glowing green canisters, and they fell, shattering on the floor. Before Yoshi  could get away, its contents splattered all over him, the turtles and the men. He had time to notice that the men started oddly twitching without a sound before  _ immense  _ pain shot through his body.

He couldn’t scream, his throat seemed like it was trying to choke something out. He felt himself cough up something slimy and disgusting, but couldn’t hear or see it. There was ringing in his heart, which felt like they were being taken and pulled on. His eyes were wide. He felt like there were thousands of little needles stuck in them. Every single part of his body was on fire, his spine was in terrible pain and he had no control over his hands or his feet.

After those agonising few seconds that felt to him like hours, the pain left, leaving only a dull throb and his frozen figure.

After a few minutes he opened his eyes, slowly, and stared into the ground for a while. It had a few splatters of blood and other organic things he did not want to know the names of. There were two prone figures on the ground, both of the men in black suits. They seemed dead, although Yoshi couldn’t be sure. He didn’t want to get close to them.

Suddenly, he heard an odd sort of chirruping sound. He jumped, almost falling to the ground from his kneeling position. He turned his head, which took longer than it should have, towards the sounds. His eyes grew wide and his jaw dropped at what he saw.

Four little humanoid turtles, much too big to be normal and almost standing on their rear legs, were crawling through the green ooze from the canisters and pieces of glass. They didn’t even reach a foot high, but they were huge and unnatural for a common box turtle.

If that green ooze did this to four baby turtles, what had it done to him?

He looked down at himself and let out a strangled scream. His entire body was now covered in black and brown fur. His hands now only had four, pink and clawed fingers, with an odd sort of nub at the place where his thumbs should have been. The tattered remains of his shirt and pants lay underneath him in shreds. He could see what he assumed was now his tail hanging limply behind him.

One of the turtles, the smallest with big blue eyes, walked on all fours towards Yoshi and tentatively put its three fingered, little and clawed hand on his own.

He then decided, in a moment of what most would have considered foolishness, that he would take care of these creatures as best as he could, and that he would stay hidden from all human eyes.

They would be seen as monsters now. Might as well hide like one.

He could have a breakdown later.


End file.
